Markham In Peru, The Travels of Clements R. Markham, 1852~1853

MARKHAM IN PERU, THE TRAVELS OF CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, 1852~1853, edited by Peter Blanchard, hardcover with unclipped dust jacket [price never printed], stated first edition, illustrated, 1991. BOOK CONDITION: near fine. The text block and illustrations are in fine condition with no tears, marks, or dog-ears. Some rippling to pages with no effect on reading. There is no bookplate nor signature of a prior owner. This is not a library book nor a remainder. The boards are in near fine condition (very slight bumping to top of spine). The dust jacket is in fine condition. 9 x 6, 148 pages, 16 ounces XX [From the dust jacket flaps] An account of considerable charm, a deceptively simple record of people met, meals eaten, scenery viewed, and roads taken that has great cumulative effect in its ery modesty of purpose. Markham conveys a wonderful sense of what it would have been like to travel in nineteenth-century Peru, and, for the criollo coast even more than for the Indian highlands, he evokes a vanished way of life (Frederick P. Bowser, associate professor of history, Stanford University). LIKE MANY a young person before and since, Clements Markham had his own ideas about what his life's work should be. In 1852, Markham left his father's choice, the British Navy, and set out for Peru to study the ruins of the Inca empire. His ten-month sojourn in Peru produced this journal, one of the few surviving accounts of Peru at mid-nineteenth century, and launched Markham on a career that led ultimately to the presidency of the Royal Geographical Society. Markham's journal captures Peru in transition from the colonial past to the modern era. He was one of the first English travelers to visit Cuzco, the ancient Inca capital, and he also witnessed the waning of slavery on the great cotton and sugar plantations as modern machinery and Chinese coolie labor were introduced. He enjoyed the hospitality of all classes of society, from the Indian peasants, who still lived much as their Inca ancestors had done, to the Spanish- descended elites, whose Europeanized lifestyle was underwritten by fortunes made in the guano industry. XX Peter Blanchard has skillfully edited, annotated, and introduced the journal, noting Markham's occasional failings as a historian. Taken together, Markham and Blanchard provide a colorful and informative picture of Peru at a significant period of its history. Peter Blanchard is associate professor of history at the University of Toronto.